Career Awareness for Kids: Health Science Careers

Introduction

Third grade teachers will find exciting lessons related to Health Science careers. Five of the most rewarding and sought after health science careers are targeted. Explore the career of a nurse, physician/doctor, pharmacist, dental hygienist, and paramedic. This curriculum connects best practices in lesson planning with hands on, student centered activities.

Career Clusters

How often we hear, “When I grow up I want to be a doctor, policemen, or a firefighter.” Literally, thousands of careers are available from which students can select. Students may be overwhelmed with the choices, because there are so many to select.

A career cluster is a group or collection of similar careers based on commonalities such as interests and job requirements. Career clusters allow students to learn about careers and their knowledge, skills, and requirements necessary. Educators and counselors use career clusters as a means of organizing instruction and activities. The 16 Career Clusters are:

16 Career Clusters
Agriculture/Food/Natural Resources	Education and Training	Hospitality & Tourism	Manufacturing
Architecture & Construction	Finance	Human Services	Marketing, Sales, & Services
Arts, A/V Technology & Communications	Government & Public Administration	Information Technology	Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math
Business Management & Administration	Health Science	Law, Public Safety & Security	Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics

National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium
(http://www.careerclusters.org/16clusters.htm)

Health Science

The Health Science career cluster, one of 16, narrows the focus for learners by concentrating on health-related careers that help people maintain and protect their health. Five of the most popular and fastest growing health related careers were targeted from over 250 possibilities. This Career Awareness curriculum, complete with lesson plans, activities, instructions, and resources needed was developed by teachers, counselors, and health science educators. Careers targeted include nurse, doctor/physician, pharmacist, dental hygienist, and paramedic.

Click on a career circle in the health career web shown below.
You will then see a page with the choices Entire Lesson Plan and E-Book.

Lesson plans include objectives, vocabulary, instructional materials, a topic introduction, advance organizers, procedures, activities, extension activities, and other /resources. Also included are learning styles, cross curricular connections, and ways to differentiate instruction.

The Five Day Lesson Planner

The five lessons above are designed to be used over the course of five days, with one lesson being targeted each day. The five day lesson planner will provide guidance on the suggested order of lessons.

Pacing	Career	Preview Topic/Look Ahead
Day 1	Cluster Intro/Nurse	Doctor/Physician
Day 2	Doctor/Physician	Pharmacist
Day 3	Pharmacist	Dental Hygienist
Day 4	Dental Hygienist	Paramedic
Day 5	Paramedic	Review/Closure

It is the policy of the University of North Texas not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex or handicap in its vocational programs, services or activities as required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.